On 29 October, William Massolin, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Chisinau, Fadei Nagacevschii, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Moldova and Vladimir Cojocaru, Director ad interim of the National Administration of Penitentiaries of the Republic of Moldova attended a ceremony to officially handover a Council of Europe donation of a lot of medical equipment and devices with the total value of EUR 148,888 within the framework of its continued assistance to the prison reform of the Republic of Moldova.
The delivery and installation were finalized on 19 October 2020 in all 16 primary healthcare sections of the penitentiary system and the Prison Hospital. The donation, consisting of 18 types of medical equipment include some of vital importance, such as portable pulse oximeters, crucial in early COVID-19 diagnosis, glucometers, autoclave sterilizers, defibrillators, portable eye tonometers, dental complex with instrument set and many others. This represents a major support to the provision of health care services in the penitentiary system in the country.
”The donated medical equipment and devices respond at best to the minimum requirements for the provision of health care in prisons and were meticulously selected to serve the purpose of further aligning the organisation of healthcare provision in prison setting to the international standards in this field,” stated Mr Massolin.
According to Minister Nagacevschii, “this significant contribution and support brought by the Council of Europe Office in Chisinau to the Ministry of Justice in general and to the National Administration of Penitentiaries in particular will certainly insure further alignment and consolidation of national standards to the European ones, especially in what concerns the conditions of detention, the provision of efficient healthcare services to inmates by using modern medical technologies, which are inevitably improving the living conditions of detainees”.
Doctors of the penitentiary institutions receiving the medical equipment expressed their gratitude for the donation as well. “We have been waiting for this support for a long time. It is a very welcome and appreciated donation, and we are all thankful for it! Now we will be able to use this modern equipment to provide qualitative healthcare services,” doctor of Penitentiary no. 7 Rusca said.
The donation was organised under the auspices of the Programme “Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova”, funded by the Government of Norway and implemented by the Council of Europe.
Additionally, in April 2020, in order to support the penitentiary system in preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection, the Council of Europe donated a lot of protective equipment and disinfectants with the total amount of 5,960.00 Euro (430 liters of disinfectants, 76,000 medical examination gloves and 24 IR thermometers).
More information:
